Still and Video Camera Convergence

Still and Video Camera Convergence — Pervasive Motion Capture and the Future of Consumer Imaging Digital cameras have long had the capability to capture motion clips - with such limited quality and capacity, however, that the feature was little more than a novelty. The latest digital still cameras by contrast record TV-quality video — full-screen and 30 frames per second, up to the capacity of the storage card.

What does this mean for the photography industry? Is the long-heralded merger of still and motion cameras into a single multi-purpose device finally close at hand? Will users shift their behavior to capture more videos than stills — and, as a consequence, further reduce the number of prints they make?

This report features a 15-page “round-table” style discussion of the issues with executives from Kodak, Nikon, Canon, HP, Fuji, Konica Minolta, Olympus, and Sony, covering:

• Convergence — Now or Not;
• Technology Enablers and Obstacles;
• Manufacturer Motivations;
• User Habits And Choices; and
• Monetizing Video -Printing and Other Output

The report also includes:

- A table summarizing the video capture capabilities of twenty five leading digital camera models from Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Kyocera, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung, Sanyo and Sony
- An overview of selected video CODECs
- AVI, Motion JPEG, MPEG 1, 2 and 4, Mini DV and QuickTime
- A discussion of the MPV standard for playback of digital video and stills on consumer DVDs
- Perspectives on the retailer’s viewpoint;
new paradigms for monetizing video and images, based on the value of content;
and the impact of camera-phones on still/video convergence 42 pages of selected news stories on digital cameras and video excerpted from 2003 and 2004 coverage in the Future Image Weekly Briefing, the industry executives primary source for current trends and technology news.